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Understanding the
meaning of observations requires interpretation. Think of Sherlock Holmes who
points out the various clues to Dr. Watson and police from Scotland Yard – they
see the same clues that Sherlock does, but they don’t know what it means, and the
great detective must interpret the meaning of these clues to them. The ultimate
goal of interpretation is to understand the meaning of something, and we want
to discover what the authors, influenced by the Holy Spirit, of the books of
the Bible meant when they wrote the Scripture.

2 PET 1:20-21
20 Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation. 21 For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of
God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.

2 TIM 3:16-17
16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

While there may be
many different aspects to any portion of Scripture, and a lot of content to
interpret, there really aren’t many different interpretations of Scripture;
according to the verse above in PETER, there is only one interpretation –
that’s the one that God intended by what He inspired men to write down for Him.
The Word of God is provided for us to equip and prepare us, straighten us out
when we need it, teaches us truth, shows us right from wrong – would any of
this be possible if there was no way to know for sure what the truth found in
the Bible really is (as so many liberal pastors and Emergent leaders want us to
believe – they teach that there is no way to really know truth in any absolute
sense)?

Since God’s Word is
definite, then there is a definite interpretation to the truth that it reveals
to us!

KEYS TO INTERPRETATION:

The purpose of
interpretation is to find out what the Bible means objectively, to find the
truth it conveys so we can accept it humbly and apply it. The Bible is not hard
to understand: you don’t need a seminary degree, or know Hebrew or Greek
(although, with concordances, we can learn key words in original languages and
this is very helpful at times), or attend a Bible college. What we need is the
Holy Spirit to teach and guide us, the Scriptures themselves and some useful
tutoring as we are receiving in this course.

With interpretation,
there must be an understanding of language and how it is used as well as the
context of history in which the Scripture was originally written:

METAPHOR:

The Bible employs
certain usage of words just as any other book, and one of these types of word
usage involves metaphor. Not everything in the Bible is true in a literal
sense: Jesus said, “I am the door” – does that mean He has hinges and a door
knob, and can swing back and forth? He is using a metaphor – a comparison
between the thing referred to (a door) and a literal truth that the speaker
(Jesus) is trying to teach. He is teaching that just as you use a door to get
from one place to another through that single opening, likewise anyone who
wants to get through to the Father, has to go through Jesus (JOHN 14:6); He
also said that He is “the bread of life” – does that mean that He is a loaf of
ground grain mixed with yeast and backed? No, he is saying metaphorically that
He provides sustenance for our spiritual life the same way that bread does for
our physical life.

GRAMMAR:

We must pay attention
to grammar because it often becomes a favor in accurate interpretation; grammar
involves verbs tenses, questions, commands, subjects and objects. These
elements determine the structure of language and are important in determining
what is being said, exactly.

JOHN 8:56-5856 Your father
Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. 57 Then said the Jews unto
him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? 58 Jesus said unto them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.

The way we use grammar
correctly, if Jesus wanted to say He lived before Abraham’s time, He should
have said, “I was before Abraham” but He didn’t. He said “Before Abraham was, I
am” – what does His use of grammar tell us?

Not only that Jesus is
the eternal Son of God (because He said “I am” not “I was” or “I will be” – but
I am: existing beyond the past, the present and the future. This also tells us
that He is claiming to be the voice from the burning bush; the God of Israel
Who spoke to Moses! Later on when Jesus said the same kind of thing “I and the
Father are one”, the religious leaders wanted to stone Him because He claimed
to be God. And we get all of this from the one word, “am” instead of “was” or
“is” or “will be”.

HISTORY:

The Bible was written
in specific historical time periods; attitudes, setting, lifestyle and
political structure of a certain time will affect the meaning of a passage.
For example, we talked about Jesus being the bread of life. During the time
period of the Roman occupation of Israel, bread was not a side dish, but the
main source of sustenance! So Jesus in referring to Himself as THE Bread of
life, would have been understood by His hearers to mean that He isn’t something
to add to your life to make it better, that you needed Him in order to have and
sustain life!
Consider the historical and religious perspective found in this passage:

JOHN 19:4-94 Pilate
therefore went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to
you, that ye may know that I find no fault in him.5 Then came
Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith
unto them, Behold the man! 6 When
the chief priests therefore and officers saw him, they cried out, saying,
Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him, and crucify him:
for I find no fault in him. 7 The
Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he
made himself the Son of God. 8 When
Pilate therefore heard that saying, he was the more afraid; 9 And went again into the
judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou? But Jesus gave him no
answer.

Pilate was confused
about Jesus – why were the religious leaders so intent on having Him executed,
when He was obviously, according to his own findings, innocent (vs.4). But when
the Jews said that Jesus made Himself out to be the Son of God, Pilate became
very fearful (vs.7-8).

Pilate wasn’t a Jew but a pagan Roman – why would he be afraid if Jesus claimed
to be the Son of God?

In Roman culture, as well as most ancient cultures, their religion held the
belief of the pantheon of the gods, and as well as these, the demi-gods, who
were half god/half man beings that the gods conceived with human females. They
referred to them as ‘sons of gods’.

And when Pilate became
fearful, he went back to Jesus and asked in verse 9, “Where did you come from?”
He suspected that Jesus was one of these demi-gods, according to his own
religious views – and he wouldn’t want Him killed and possibly angering one of
the gods!

So, because we
understand a bit about the Roman culture and religion, we know why Pilate was
very afraid!

The INTERPRETIVE
PROCESS:

So far, we have
learned how to set up questions, use them to probe certain passages and make
observations. Now we will determine what these observations mean; this is where
the interpretive step begins!

Even though the
Observation chart, and a list in an Interpretation Sheet which we will get into
next are separate and distinct from each other as steps, and forms for you to
fill out, in actual practice however, the steps will tend to blend, in time you
may not even be conscious of them as separate steps – observation will begin to
flow easily into interpretation.

Much of our observation has interpretation
built into it: for example, when we were making observations about Nicodemus
and asked, “What is a Pharisee?” – that is actually an interpretive question
because it’s going to cause you to seek out answers that will help us interpret
who Nicodemus was. We won’t find a lot of information in the Bible itself about
what a Pharisee is, which means we will have to look elsewhere – a Bible dictionary
or encyclopedia, or even a web-search online. Many of the observations that had
to do with history will also require getting answers outside of the Bible.

It’s often better,
during the observation process, when you encounter such questions that will
require interpretive answers, that you get those answers then before you go on
to make other observations of the text.

Interpretation builds
on the foundation of observation. If you observe what the Bible says and bring
all these observations together, you can interpret more accurately – the
greater the quality of your observation, the more accurate the interpretation.

Recording your
interpretations will not require a chart, because you will only have
“Interpretation” written at the top, record the verse you are interpreting, and
then write down all of your interpretation based on the Observation chart. You
can use simple stationary paper for this Interpretation Sheet. Later you
will refer to this sheet for your interpretations of passages and words when you
make your Final Outline.

LET THE
BIBLE INTERPRET FOR YOU – Using the Bible as a Resource:

I have said it so many
times before: when engaged in studying any of the 66 books of the Bible, the
best commentaries you can use are the other
65 books of the Bible! In other words, let the Bible interpret itself. You
do this by looking for passages and references elsewhere in Scripture that you
are studying in any given location in the Bible.

You don’t find a
single chapter in the Bible where we learn everything we need to know about
grace, or holiness, or salvation – or about the history of Israel – or the
teachings of Jesus; you find multiple chapters throughout different locations
in Bible that addresses all the subjects that the Word of God teaches us.

CROSS REFERENCES
and STUDY RESOURCES:

This is where cross
references come in: any verse you are reading, will have cross references in
the margin that direct you to other passages in the Bible that deals with the
subject in that verse. Each reference that you look up will allow you to look
deeper into the truth of Scripture and add information to the passage you are
studying. The more references you look up, the clearer will be your
understanding, and the interpretation you will form will be more accurate.

In astronomy, scientists talk about the resolving power of their telescopes. If
you have a less powerful telescope, it will have a low resolving power; a more
powerful telescope will have a high resolving power. If you have a less
powerful telescope, you may look at a star and think that it’s all by itself. A
more powerful telescope will reveal that it’s actually two stars. A more
powerful telescope still will allow you to see that it’s actually a star and an
orbiting planet.

The power of
cross-referencing is in its authority. Since you are allowing Scripture to
interpret Scripture, you can depend on the correctness of your findings. By
this method, you will begin to see the meaning of the Bible begin to unfold.

The usual method of
cross-referencing is to begin with the big picture and narrow it down to
specifics. You begin by looking at the questions you raised from your
observations and record your interpretations on yet another chart! This is your Cross-Referencing Chart.

There are many
resources you can use to acquire cross-references; most Bibles will have at
least some in the margin or center column of the page. Study Bibles such as a
Thompson Chain, a Life Application or a Scofield are all excellent choices.
Some online source you could use are www.biblehub.com or www.blueletterbible.org or www.e-sword.net/. You can also use an incredible resource called Treasury of Scripture
Knowledge both in book form and more recently, online (www.tsk-online.com/). This is literally a book full of cross-references! It covers the
entire Bible, and as you turn to the first page, you see

GENESIS
1:1In the beginningGod created
the heaven and the earth.

Then you will see a list of cross-references that have to do with the beginning,
starting with PROV 8:22-24; 16:4; MARK
13:19; JOHN 1:1-3 and more, all having to do with the beginning of
creation.

Then you will see a list of cross-references that have to do with God
such as EXOD 20:11; 31:18; 1 CHRON 16:26
and so on. The entire Bible is laid out in this book like this. Each verse is
listed with key words following, then with cross-references that deal with
those key words! Amazing!

Another powerful
resource is a concordance (many are available online) – I like to use STRONG’s Concordance (see a quick video at this link on how to use this tool) because it’s the
most well-known, and many other resource books are keyed to it. I have said it
many times, that if I could take with me just two books on a deserted island
with me, they would be my Bible and my STRONG’s Concordance! The following is a link where you can read through the process of how this is used.

With a concordance
you can locate any verse in the Bible if you know just a couple of words in the
verse (locating them is especially easy with the online concordances). Once
located, the concordance will tell you what the word used for it in the
original language, what the original word means, and elsewhere in Scripture
where that word appears.

Let’s say you want to do a word study on “grace” or “atonement” – or a study on
a geographical place in the Bible, like “Jerusalem” or “Galilee” or “Hebron” –
or you want to a biographical study on “Noah” or “Abraham” or “David” or
“Peter” or “Paul” – using a concordance will track down every reference in the
entire Bible where these words or names are used.

By the time you complete your listing of all the verses that mention these, and
read through those Scriptures – you will have a complete view of everything
that the Bible has to say about these things!

A good companion tool that works well with STRONG’s is a VINE’S EXPOSITORY
Dictionary which will give you the definition of specific words used in
Scripture and provides information, insight, history that deals with those
words. There are some STRONG’s that combine its information with the ‘best of
Vines’ incorporated right into the book.

Bible Encyclopedias
(such as ZONDERVAN’s PICTORAL ENCYCLOPEDIA – available as an e-book, as are
most of these other resources) can also be a tremendous help in unlocking
important information about the Bible and all of its subject matter. The nice
thing about these reference materials is that you can use as many – or as few –
as you want, depending on how much time you have, and how much you want to
learn about the Bible, whether in all of its details or a simple and practical
application on how to live life as a disciple of Christ.

Another resource you
might like to use is comparing how verses are expressed in different
translations, comparing them with each other (KJV, NKJV, NASB, ESV, etc.) – be
advised however that not all translations are equally accurate in their
translation.

HOW TO CROSS REFERENCE:

We’ll use JOHN 3 for this exercise. In this verse
we have the word “Pharisee” that we’ve already spent a little time with, so
let’s start here. Where else are Pharisees discussed in Scripture? There are
times when you may not find any cross-references to “Pharisee” (depending on
which study Bible you’re using. You will see a chain cross-reference in
Thompson Chain).

If you don’t find any cross-references to any word in a
particular verse, there is always the concordance. What is recommended is that
you list all cross-references, and a listing of verses in the concordance that
deals with (in our case here) “Pharisees” within the book you are studying
first.

Since we are looking in JOHN 3,
list all references and verses about Pharisees in the Gospel of JOHN first,
then if you have the time, all of the other books by the same author (1, 2, 3 JOHN and REVELATION and then if you still have more time yet, the other
Gospels, and then the remainder of the New Testament.

As you review all of
the verses from your cross-references and lists of verses gleaned from your
concordance, you will learn quite a lot about Pharisees: they were members of
the high council – or the Sanhedrin as it was called (JOHN 11:47); they were strict interpreters of the Law (JOHN 8:3); they didn’t believe that
Jesus was the Messiah (JOHN 9:16);
many verses show that they were opposed to Jesus and were determined to kill
him.

Every verse that you find about the subject you are cross-referencing will
be another piece in the jig-saw puzzle – the more you put into place on your
chart, the more complete a picture you will have.

More often than not,
if you refer to anywhere from 3 to 6 cross-references from any given verse
you’re looking at, this will usually yield sufficient information for your
needs in understanding the subject in the verse you are researching.
Occasionally you may need to ‘dig deeper’ and look up more verses in your
cross-references.

Relationship with Pilate – two different
categories: chief priests and rulers.

Sneered at Jesus

Rulers don’t believe in Jesus

Nicodemus afraid to speak of his
relationship with Jesus

Many rulers believe in Jesus – never said so
out of fear of the Pharisees who could put them out of the synagogue.

Peter points out that the people acted in
ignorance concerning Christ as did their “rulers”.

Two more categories: “elders” and “scribes”.
After 500 believed, the rulers and others gathered with the high priest and
asked Peter questions.

Paul exhorted the Jewish elders in the
synagogue. He states neither the people nor their rulers recognized Christ or
His teachings.

CONCENTRATE
ON THE CONTEXT:

Context is another way
of allowing the Bible to interpret itself. Rather than following a word or an
idea though the Bible (as done with cross-referencing), we stay ‘closer to
home’ and consider the word or verse within the passage of Scripture we are
studying, considering the verses preceding and following it.

Context can be
critically important. Many Bible study errors can be traced to the failure to
keeping the context. Choosing verses selectively and ignoring context is a way
to make the Bible say anything you want.

Many misunderstandings
and misinterpretations can be resolved by considering context. A classic
example of this is the subject of faith and works as discussed by both Paul and
James. By reading them, some assume that they are in conflict with each other.

In JAMES 2:17 we read that “faith by
itself isn’t enough” or “faith without works is dead”. But in GALATIANS 2:16 we read that “faith, not
works is the only way to salvation”. So, is this a contradiction in Scripture?
It only appears this way because by focusing on just these two verses, outside
of their context in JAMES 2 and GALATIANS 2, we are not getting the
full picture of what these two authors are saying.

When Paul speaks of
faith in GALATIANS, he relates it to justification. Faith in Christ is our
means of showing dependence on Him and thus our means of accepting salvation.
James on the other hand, is not speaking of justification
but rather sanctification – of
growing up in the faith, of living the life of a Christian. True faith is not
just a declaration of belief but also an attitude of trust which involves not
only what we say but also what we do – “talk is cheap. You say you have faith;
prove it by what you do.”

So, we understand that
Paul and James don’t in fact contradict each other, but that each is dealing
with a separate part of our salvation experience.

Here is another
example of context – and what is important in context is what is said, and also
sometimes what is not said:

JOHN 7:40-5340 Many
of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is
the Prophet.41 Others said, This is the Christ. But some
said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? 42 Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of
the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? 43 So there was a division
among the people because of him. 44 And
some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him. 45 Then came the officers
to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not
brought him? 46 The
officers answered, Never man spake like this man. 47 Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also
deceived? 48 Have
any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? 49 But this people who knoweth
not the law are cursed. 50 Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by
night, being one of them,) 51 Doth
our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth? 52 They answered and said
unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee
ariseth no prophet. 53 And
every man went unto his own house.

Note vs. 48: “Have any
of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him?”

Then notice how
Nicodemus responds to that question in vs. 50-51:

“50 Nicodemus saith
unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,) 51 Doth our law
judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?”

Notice what Nicodemus didn’t say however: he doesn’t mention
that he had a private meeting with Jesus at night, listened to what He had to
say, and concluded that what He said was true (we know this is the case because
of what is said of him and Joseph or Arimathea in JOHN 19:38-40). He and Joseph believed “but secretly because of
their fear of the Jews” – but they overcame their fear and boldly asked for the
body of Jesus from Pilate, to bury Him. So we can see context is important and
reveals things that we might not otherwise see.

HOMEWORK:

1) Choose a word from
JOHN Chapter 1 and make a Cross-Reference Chart on it.
2) Select a passage and read the related verses before and after it. Then enter
your findings on the Interpretation Sheet.

SEARCHING OUTSIDE of the BIBLE: Using
Extra-biblical Resources

The BIBLE will
interpret itself. Remember that you can use other sources outside of the Bible
to gain even more insight into the Scriptures. We talked already about these:
dictionaries, encyclopedias, reference books and concordances. Don’t forget
about using atlases (an excellent resource for maps, as well as charts and diagrams
is NELSON’s COMPLETE BOOK Of BIBLE MAPSand CHARTS), topical books whose entire subject material
will deal with something specific in the passage you are studying.

For example, you may
be looking at this passage:

HEBREWS 8:1-3
Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high
priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the
heavens; 2 A
minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched,
and not man. 3 For
every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of
necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.

You come across verse
2 and it discusses the tabernacle (of Moses) and perhaps you want to get some
detailed information about the Tabernacle and its counterpart the Temple (of
Solomon) – an excellent book for this is The HOLIEST of ALL – by Andrew Murray, a commentary on the book
of HEBREWS and examines all of the parts and aspects of both the Tabernacle and
the Temple.

COMPUTER
RESOURCES:

There are many
different online sources you can use for your research and finding Scripture
for cross-references or examine various biblical topics.

One such online
resource is Biblegateway.com and another is blueletterbible.org. I prefer Blue
Letter because Bible Gateway has recently endorsed contemplative prayer and
certain authors like the late Dallas Willard who promoted it.

Both sites have
virtually every Bible translation in print at your fingertips. Both are
word-searchable, meaning that if you can recall two or more words in a single
verse, type those in the search engine and you can zero in on all the verses
that contain those words. It is also useful as an online concordance – and
other research tools, particularly on Blue Letter Bible.

If you are doing your
study online, using MS WORD, it’s an easy task to copy and paste scriptures
from these sites directly into your document.

For Bible software
there are many different programs available; the top six available are as
follows (from the following site). Price ranges from as low as $20 to as much
as over $10,000 depending on your needs (and the size of your bank account!).

6) iLUMINA GOLD (as
mentioned in GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING YOUR BIBLE) is no longer available directly
from Tyndale, but may be purchased by resellers such as this one:

Each of these has
anywhere from 2 or 3 to over a dozen different Bible translations you can
utilize, commentaries, encyclopedias, reference materials and more, ranging
from the simple to the scholastic. Go shopping and see which one(s) you like
best. I can offer no recommendations personally only because I do my studies
(for the most part) the old-fashioned way via books – as well as some free
online sites (www.blueletterbible.org; have a look at this site and check out all
the awesome resources available – FOR FREE!).

BUILDING
INTERPRETATION on the FOUNDATION of OBSERVATION:

From page 63 of
chapter Five in the text book (pg. 27 of this manual, SESSION 4) we constructed
a chart from JOHN Chapter Four that contrasted Jesus and the Samaritan woman.
We made quite a few observations by contrasting these two people, and from
those observations we will build our interpretations, which is one step further
along in our process of Bible study. We will ask such questions as, “What do
these differences mean? How do they affect relationship and communication? Do
they create barriers, or are they insignificant?”

In first century Palestine,
all of these differences were significant, and each would create a barrier
between them, even to the point of making communication at all highly unlikely.
Using the ‘surfacer’ of “what?” we can uncover some answers that will aid us in
interpretation: “What barrier would this difference create between Jesus and
the Samaritan woman?”

To get answers, we can
use encyclopedias, study Bible notes, computer software and, or online sites
that deal with these specific issues – in this case, an online site that dealt
with “Palestinian culture during the days of Jesus” (doing a search on your web
browser with these words will yield valuable information).

Here are some answers
that Josh McDowell gleaned from various sources mentioned:

1) The fact that the
woman was a blatant sinner and Jesus was sinless created a moral barrier. Jews in those days would never stoop
to socialize with an adulterer or a prostitute.

2) The fact that she
was a woman and He was a man created a social
barrier. In Jewish culture men and women did not mix socially even in
public, much less in private. That is why the disciples were “astounded” when
they returned and found Jesus talking with her.

3) The fact that the
woman was a Samaritan and Jesus was a Jew created a racial barrier. The Jews held the Samaritans in low
esteem, regarding them as an impure race of Jewish blood mixed with Assyrian
and other exiled races and would have nothing to do with them.

4) Being a Samaritan
meant that this woman was of the Samaritan religion, which the Jews saw as a
corruption of their own Judaism. The Samaritans used only the first give books
of the Old Testament as their Bible. They did not worship at Jerusalem as all
Jews did, but rather at Mount Gerazim in their own country. This tampering with
Scripture and changes to worship caused the Jews to hate the Samaritans
obsessively. Thus, there was a religious
barrier.

5) The woman lived in
Samaria, a country that the Jews disdained since its decimation and
resettlement by the Assyrians seven centuries before. So, with their separate
nationalities, the woman and Jesus also faced a political barrier.

DIFFERENCES OBSERVED

Woman

Jesus

Barrier

Adulteress

Son of God, rabbi

Moral

Woman

Man

Social

Samaritan

Jew

Racial

Samaritan religion

Judaism

Religious

From Samaria

From Judea

Political

The GOAL:
INTERPRETATION:

The ultimate purpose
in using all of these resources is to gain a greater understanding of the
meaning of the Bible. Again: Observation: See it – what does the Scripture SAY.
Interpretation: Know/Understand it - what does the Scripture MEAN. 3)
Application: Obey/practice it - what does the Scripture APPLY (to my life?).

So the process is,
start with the Bible first: let the book of the Bible that you are studying
(GENESIS, RUTH, DANIEL, MATTHEW, ACTS, REVELATION) interpret itself. Get all
the meaning you can by asking the questions – surfacers – of the verse under
consideration.

Then start linking cross-references (first from the book itself,
then from other books by the same author, then the Bible in general). Also
remember to look at each verse in context.

But then you will come to a point
where the passage will raise more questions than mere observation can answer.
It is at that point you will need to go outside of the Bible and look at other
resources to provide, along with what you have gathered so far, an
interpretation that will bring understanding.

For example:

NEHEMIAH 1:1111 O Lord,
I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant,
and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I
pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.
For I was the king's cupbearer.

There is nothing in
this passage that indicates whether a ‘cup-bearer’ was an important position or
just a lowly servant. The context will give you some hints but to get into the
details, you will need to do a little research into what a cupbearer was in
those ancient cultures. A simple web search will offer innumerable links to
choose from. Even Wikipedia will provide some excellent information on this!

Start first with the
Bible, glean from outside sources any information you can find that is useful,
then return to the Bible with that information. In developing your own outlines
and charts with information you are learning, you will discover that in many
resources (online and in books) you will find such charts and outlines already
made. One might ask the question, Why make my own when I can borrow others that
have already done the work?

Two reasons:

First, you want your material to be your own. If you depend only on the work of
others without doing your own digging, the knowledge doesn’t sink in as deeply.
It’s when you do the work, the research, ask the questions, that the
information becomes your own property that the knowledge sticks. Plus by
winning the information for yourself, you will be far more able to answer
questions of those you are teaching, than if you just echo the words from
another.

Second, if you do the
work yourself, all of your exposition (information that you will teach) will be
uniquely yours. With the aid of the Spirit you will likely have insights that
no one else has. Your teaching will be fresh and never dull or dry – having
just read it in a book and then cough it up for others to hear.

I learned a long time
ago, that when it comes from resources outside of the Bible, where your own
study is concerned, “glean, don’t lean”. In other words, pick up jewels from
this source and that, but don’t carry everything from those sources and make
that the study you will present.

HOMEWORK:

1) Find a key word in JOHN 1 and define it. Place that definition on your
Interpretation Sheet.

2) Read a selected
section of JOHN 1 in two different translations and a paraphrase. Record any
interpretive insights you glean on your Interpretation Sheet.

3) Using an
encyclopedia (online or not) and look up the word you defined above and record
anything significant on your Interpretation Sheet.

Once you have all your
preliminary charts and completed assignments, you will have several pages of
material. But it’s still is not in any useful order. It’s like preparing a
dinner for guests. You’ve been to the grocery store, bought all the items you
will need to complete the menu.

But it’s all just
flour and eggs, meat, vegetables, canned goods, and spices, along with
everything else. You’re not going to set these things down on the dining table
and tell your guests to eat up! The dinner engagement cannot happen until you
take these items, prepare and cook them, set everything in order so that they
will not only be nutritious and appetizing, but ready to eat!

The ‘grocery items’
that you have ‘bought’ in your examination of the Scriptures are now in need of
setting in order, prepared so that your hearers will be able to ‘spiritually
dine’ on the meal you have prepared for them.

To set things in
order, you will need an outline: you can either create one of your own OR you
can use one that’s already established – find any study Bible and look at the
portion of Scripture that your own study is based on. There you will find
(either in the introduction of the book) or in the Chapter heading, an outline.
Either way will work: it’s just that if you borrow an outline, you want to fill
in all the material from YOUR OWN research.

PASSAGE OUTLINE:

To outline a chapter,
you will need to determine how many subjects or themes are covered in that
chapter. Some chapters have only one subject, while others have several. The
process of points made in outlining a passage will be determined by the passage
itself. Those points should develop along the natural progressing of the
passage. Two principles in helping to outline a passage is as follows:

1) Never try to force
a topic into an outline that you don’t find within the passage – a topic you
might have discovered in cross-references or in research from sources other
than the Bible itself.

2) As you construct
your outline, you may use the chapter or section titles from your charts as the
titles in your outline.

Here is an
illustration (follow along with the chart found on page 118 in the book, and
here below [on page 45]):

JOHN 1:1-18
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was
in the beginning with God. 3 All
things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life; and the
life was the light of men. 5 And
the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

6 There was a
man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the
Light, that all men through him might believe. 8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness
of that Light.

9 That was the
true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10 He was in the world, and
the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own,
and his own received him not. 12 But
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name: 13 Which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God.

14 And
the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. 15 John bare witness of
him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is
preferred before me: for he was before me. 16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace
for grace. 17 For
the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. 18 No man hath seen God at
any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath
declared him.

In the observation
charts, Josh McDowell listed four major points that came from his study
of this passage, using his Observation chart:

Point One: JOHN 1:1-5 – The
Word is Christ, Who is God. God Who is from the beginning Who created the
world. So, on the outline, the first heading could be “The Word – The Uncreated
Creator.”

Point Two: JOHN
1:6-8 – The next heading, using his Observation chart, he refers to John
the Baptist; so, on the outline, the second heading could be “Forerunner of the
Word”.

Point
Three: JOHN 1:9-13 – Here the heading, based on the Observation chart, the
third heading could be “Results of the Word Made Flesh”.

Point Four: JOHN 1:14-18 – The last
heading could be “Characteristics of the Word Made Flesh”.

Using these four major
points, you can then go back to your Observation and Interpretation Sheet for
subjects to ‘fill in the blanks’ under these headings: The Word – the Uncreated
Creator, Forerunner of the Word, Results of the Word Made Flesh and
Characteristics of the Word Made Flesh.

From Josh’s
Observation and Interpretation on JOHN 1, he observed the following information
in vs. 1-5 and used these to fill in the blanks under Point One as
subdivisions under each point.

God as A) Eternally
Existing, B) Eternal Source (of all things) and C) Eternal manifestation and he
placed all of these three observations under “The Word – the Uncreated Creator”

(JOHN 1:1-5).

Then he looks for
logical topics from all the charts that should be placed under these three
subdivisions (A-C). He finds all the material from his Observation and
Interpretation notes and places them under A, B and C accordingly. For any
subdivision, if there are no notes (Josh didn’t have any for “Eternal
manifestation (C)” so he just leaves that blank.

He then looks to the
next point, Point Two: “Forerunner of the Word” and again consults his
charts and finds a basic question prompts the answer that he needs “Who was the
Forerunner of the Word?” From vs. 6 in his notes he sees “John the Baptist – a
man sent by God” so he places this as a sub-topic under Point Two (A: John the
Baptist – a man sent by God).

The question then
arises – Why: Why was John sent by God as a forerunner? So as another
subdivision would be B: Purpose and finds the answers in vs. 7-8 from his
notes: 1) “He came to tell about the Light” and also 2) “so that everyone might
believe”.

The important thing to
remember is to begin with the big idea found in the section of Scripture, then
divide it up into sub-divisions and sub-topics until you find a useful place
for all the important information found in your Observation and Interpretation
notes.

Two cautions: First,
when you create a heading based on a certain set of verses, all the subdivided
information you place under that heading must be information derived from those
verse.

For example, for the
first point “The Word – the Uncreated Creator” which covers vs. 1-5, all the
subdivisions break down things about “The Word” – “Eternally Existing”,
“Eternal Source” and “Eternal Manifestation” – none of these describe anything
except for what deals with the first point: The WORD.

Second, if you only
have one subtopic to go under a heading, you can just list this under the
heading without numbering it. The numbers/letters are useful if you have two or
more subtopics that fit under the heading.

WITNESS of the WORD Made FLESH (JOHN 1:1-18)

I.The WORD – The Uncreated
Creator (vs. 1-5)

A.
ETERNAL EXISTENCE (vs. 1-2)

1. Divine nature (vs. 1)
2. Since the Beginning (vs. 2)

B.
ETERNAL SOURCE Of CRATION (vs. 2-4)

1. Material World (vs. 3)
2. Life (vs. 4)

C.
ETERNAL MANIFESTATION (light; vs. 5)

II. FORERUNNER Of The WORD (vs. 6-8)

A.
WHO? A MAN SENT BY GOD (vs. 6)

B.
PURPOSE? (vs. 7-8)

1. Bear Witness of the Light (7a,8)
2. For all the world to believe (7b)

III. RESULTS Of The WORD MADE FLESH (vs. 9-13)

A.
NEGATIVE (9-11)

1. Enlightens Every Man (vs. 9) BUT –
2. Rejected by men (vs. 10-11)
a. by the world (vs. 1)
b. by His own (vs. 11)

B. POSITIVE (vs. 12-13)

1. Children of God by believing (vs. 12)
2. Of God, not of men (vs. 13)

IV. CHARACTERISTICS Of The WORD MADE FLESH
(vs. 14-18)

A.
ONLY BEGOTTEN OF THE FATHER (vs. 14)

B.
GREATER RANK THAN FOREFUNNER (vs. 15)

C.
CHANNEL OF GRACE AND TRUTH (vs. 16-17)

D.
VISIBLE EXPRESSION OF THE INVISIBLE GOD (vs. 18)

WORD STUDY OUTLINE:

A Key Word Study –
Depending on how much time you want to allocate to your study, you might
consider doing a study on any key words found in the passage or chapter of
Scripture you are analyzing. The word Josh used as an example is “water” as
found in JOHN 3:3,5.

He consulted his
cross-reference chart and examined what he recorded on “water” and found that
there were four basic headings:

INTERPRETATION Outline
of “Water” JOHN 3:3,53 Jesus answered
and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God.

Word study outlines
can be very crucial to understanding the interpretation of any passage, and
especially in examining their meaning in the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or
Greek (New Testament), the languages that the inspired Scriptures were written
in (You can do this research by using a STRONG’s Concordance – or other
concordance that has Hebrew and Greek lexicons). For example, consider the
following:

JOHN 21:14-1714 This is now
the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was
risen from the dead.15 So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon
Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith
unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him,
Feed my lambs.16 He
saith to him again the second time,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou
knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.17 He
saith unto him the third time, Simon,
son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him
the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all
things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my
sheep.

Reading this
conversation between the LORD and Peter in the English, it would seem the
reason Peter was grieved, is because the LORD kept asking him if he loved Him,
even though he already stated that this was the case. By the third time, Peter
was grieved and insisted that he loved the LORD.

It isn’t until you
consider the Greek words used here for “love” that we understand what was
really happening here.

The LORD asks Peter in
vs. 15: “Simon do you love Me more than these?” The Greek word used here for
“love” is agapeo and it is a high
moral, unconditional love that is the characteristic of God’s love for us. Essentially,
the LORD was asking Peter if he loved Him just as our LORD loved him.

Peter’s response in
vs. 15: “Yes, LORD, You know that I love You…” But the word in the Greek that
Peter uses here is phileo, which
means “a fondness for a friend; this word while speaking of genuine love is not
as deep, passionate and committed as is agapeo.
Peter was admitting that his love for His LORD was not the same quality as the
LORD’s love for him.

It was then that the
LORD asked Peter the second time, “Do you agapeo
me?”

Peter replies, “I phileo You.”

By the third time, the
LORD asks Peter, “Do youphileo Me,
Peter?”

Peter was grieved
because the LORD stepped down from the loftier form of love, agapeo, to the mere friendship love in
asking him, if he loved Him. Peter said, “You know that I phileo You, LORD.”

Unless you examined
the Greek words used in this passage, you wouldn’t have known what was really
going on here.

Word studies are also
very helpful for topical studies you might want to conduct in the Scriptures; this
is where your concordance is a very powerful tool to use. Suppose you want to
do a character study on a particular person in the Bible; like Abraham
or Jacob or Joseph – or Moses, or perhaps the prophet Samuel or King David; or
Peter or Paul.

You could turn pages
in the Bible and look for those names, but that would take a very long time.
But by looking those names up in an exhaustive concordance (not a concise
version), it will list for you every place in Scripture where those names
appear. More often than not, the concordance will also provide you with the
meaning of those names, which is often significant.

What about a geographic
study in the Scriptures? Suppose you want to do a study on Jerusalem, or
Bethlehem or Damascus – or Babylon, Ur or Hebron? Again, you can track down
every place in Scripture where these locations are mentioned, and by the time
you’re done, you will have a complete history lesson from the Bible on that
particular place! And the meaning of the place name as well.

Suppose you want to do
a doctrinal study on some word that is essential to the Christian faith:
such doctrinal words like grace, faith, atonement, love, propitiation, baptism,
impute, etc. Once again, all you need to do is look up those words in your
concordance, track down every where those words appear in Scripture, examining
how they are used in context, and you will have a complete and comprehensive
understanding of what God’s Word says about those essential doctrinal words!

You could then use a
Bible Encyclopedia for additional information on any character, geographic and
doctrinal word study of your choice to fill in even more details.

A QUICK
REVIEW:

The process of Bible
study is completed for the purpose of seeing and knowing content (Observation)
and what it means (Interpretation). Before proceeding, let’s get a quick
overview, and as we do, note how we go from the general to the specific; going
deeper and becoming more detailed with every step. This method keeps what you
learn in context, helping you to group and organize material for greater
clarity and focus.

Chapter Titles: These are the ‘big handles’ to help us grasp
and recall the content of each chapter. We capture chapter titles at the top of
each column of our Title Chart.

Paragraph Titles: We titled the paragraphs within each chapter
as smaller handles to help us grasp the content of each section of the chapter.
We capture paragraph titles in the column below the appropriate chapter title
of our Title Chart.

Observation: Next, we engage in the process of simple observation to learn how to
see the content of a passage. As aids to observation, we applied the six basic
or surfacer questions: Who, What,
When, Where, How and Why? Then we asked the twelve relationship
questions to further aid in our observation. We recorded our observations on an
Observation Chart. In observation we were little concerned with what a
passage means; at this point, we were primarily interested in seeing what is
actually there.

Interpretation: In this step we looked at the basic
principles of interpretation before beginning to seek the meanings of the
observations we recorded in our observation step. The process of interpretation
led us into the next two major steps involved in finding these answers –
cross-referencing Bible passages and researching outside sources.

Cross-Referencing: This was our first step into interpretation
– seeking the meaning behind our observations. We looked for answers from the
Bible, learning to follow references until we found what the Bible had to say
in other places about the subject in question. We also considered context
as a means of determining what the Bible itself had to say on a given subject.
We recorded our answers on a Cross-Reference Chart.

Extra-biblical Research: The next step in interpretation was to go
outside of the Bible and find answers to our interpretation questions by
researching other resources like general dictionaries, Bible dictionaries,
Bible encyclopedias, commentaries, topical books, atlases, word studies, online
resources and computer software. We entered all our findings on an Interpretation
Sheet.

Outlining: The culmination of all our Bible study and chart making was our
outline. The outline organized the material we gleaned into a logical form we
can use as a teaching or study resource.

The entire Bible study
process introduced here is designed to help you understand the content and
meaning of the Bible. The resulting outline is a fine tool for further study,
memory and teaching. This process that produced this outline – all the reading,
digging, referencing, thinking, charting, researching and outlining – has value
in itself. The whole process puts you deeply into the Word, and as you work,
you begin to see things, have insights, the progression of through, how things
fit together, relationships between books of the Bible, doctrines, Bible people
and histories that you never saw before. Even if you never touch your outline
again, you have lodged in your mind a new and greater understanding and
appreciation for God’s message to you.

HOMEWORK:

1. Find a key word in JOHN 4 (or other Chapter) and from your
charts, make a word outline.

2. Look at your charts
and find the chapter or section of a chapter on which you made the most
complete notes. Do a passage outline of this section.

This is the end of Sessions 5 and 6; Sessions 7 and 8 will be added as soon as I can complete them as of 12.12.17

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men...And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth...Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

"We see, in many a land, the proudest dynasties and tyrannies still crushing, with their mountain weight, every free motion of the Consciences and hearts of men. We see, on the other hand, the truest heroism for the right and the greatest devotion to the Truth in hearts that God has touched. We have a work to do, as great as our forefathers and, perhaps, far greater. The enemies of Truth are more numerous and subtle than ever and the needs of the Church are greater than at any preceding time. If we are not debtors to the present, then men were never debtors to their age and their time. Brethren, we are debtors to the hour in which we live. Oh, that we might stamp it with Truth and that God might help us to impress upon its wings some proof that it has not flown by neglected and unheeded." -- C.H. Spurgeon

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." II Timothy 3:1-7 – The Bible

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